The new year has come, and the old year is gone. But damage done in one year reverberates in the next. Apex Publications is a wonderful small press publishing horror, dark fantasy, science fiction and very weird stories. They also have a magazine called, oddly enough, Apex Magazine which recently went on-line.

Apex is owned and operated by Jason Sizemore who had a tough year of it. Many book shipments came in damaged for which he had to eat the cost and changing the nature of Apex Magazine required a lot of reimbursements. Things like this happen to a small press.

Here is where we can help. Jason needs to sells books to keep his company afloat and needs to do it fast. He needs $2500 in two weeks and one week is gone already (yes, I am late coming to this -- sorry). 7 days remain and he's almost at the half way mark. How can you help? You can buy Apex books from their store. Spend over $25.00 and the shipping is free!

This is a way we can directly help save a book published and get some great birthday gifts for that Horror/SF/Fantasy reader in the process. Below are a couple of Apex books, click on the book cover to go to the Apex store if you find yourself interested in making a purchase.



Mama's Boy and Other Dark Tales
Author: Friel, Fran
Format: Hardcover
Type: Short Story Collection
Page Count: 280pp.
Pub. Date: June 27, 2008
Publisher: Apex Publications
Links: The Lair of Author Fran Friel
Links: Fran Friel's MySpace
Links: Yada Feast: Fran Friel's World of Writing, Horror and Yada, Yada. . .

This book also contains the author preferred version of Mama's Boy, nominated for the 2006 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction.

The Bram Stoker Award-nominated novella "Mama's Boy" is the cornerstone of this 14-story collection from author Fran Friel and Apex Publications. A man whose mother's demented love for him has turned him from an innocent boy to a serial killer to a near-comatose mental patient opens his world to a psychologist determined to reach him as a way of dealing with her own mother's battle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But is she helping, or is there more damage to be done?

In "Mashed," a son's simple request for potatoes with his birthday dinner opens up a world of past fears and childhood torments for his mother, while the flash fiction story "Close Shave" presents a horrifically funny solution to an everyday women's issue.

From mother and son to broader family ties, Friel explores the bonds of human connection into every dark turn. The humorous yet wickedly creepy "Under the Dryer" begins as a tale told by the family dog and ends in a bloodbath; "Special Prayers," perhaps the most disturbing offering in the collection, exposes a family secret of abuse and power; and the tragically soft and beautiful "Orange and Golden" explores the purest form of the human-animal bond as the sun sets on a natural disaster.

Fran Friel is a horror writer. She lives in Connecticut with her husband where she grows plants and gargoyles.

Table of Contents:

• Beach of Dreams


• Gravy


• Mashed


• The Sea Orphan


• Orange and Golden


• Under the Dryer


• Close Shave


• Connected at the Hip


• Special Prayers


• Widow


• Spider Love


• Fine Print


• Black Sheep


• Mama's Boy

The Convent of the Pure
Author: Harvey, Sara M.
Format: Trade Paperback
Type: Novel
Pub. Date: April 1, 2009
Publisher: Apex Publications
Links: Sara M. Harvey's Official Author Site
Links: Sara M. Harvey's MySpace
Links: The Merry Adventures of Saraphina

Publication Date: April 1st
All pre-orders will receive a PDF containing the story "Prelude to Penemue" that is set in the same world as The Convent of the Pure.

Secrets and illusions abound in a decaying convent wrapped in dark magic and scented with blood. Portia came to the convent with the ghost of Imogen, the lover she failed to protect in life. Now, the spell casting caste wants to make sure that neither she nor her spirit ever leave.

Portia's ignorance of her own power may be even more deadly than those who conspire against her as she fights to fulfill her sworn duty to protect humankind in a battle against dark illusions and painful realities.

Steeped in the legends of the Nephilim, The Convent of the Pure is the first installment of a steampunk novella trilogy by Sara M. Harvey.

Stay tuned . . .